17 Medical Students Expelled For Providing Fake Caste Certificates In India

Ex-Mantralaya staffer blows the lid off the scam wherein ineligible students had secured admissions under the SC/ST quota.

In what could be the country's biggest medical admission scam, which was exposed by a retired Mantralaya staffer, 17 MBBS students were expelled on Tuesday from state and civic-run medical colleges in Mumbai and Kolhapur (15 in Mumbai, two in Kolhapur). These students were found guilty of submitting fake caste certificates to secure admissions under the quota reserved for the scheduled castes/tribes (SC/ST) candidates.

Of the 17 expelled, nine are from the Grant Medical College at JJ Hospital. They have been identified as Aayesha Reshamwala, Mohammad Reshamwala, Nuamana Mansuri, Mohammed Israrul Qadari, Awais Khan, Areeba Khan (all second-year students), Karan Purohit, Maria Shaikh (both final year), and Shaikh Tayabe Yunus, who was a first-year student.

Investigations have revealed that siblings Aayesha and Mohammad Reshamwala are children of a retired JJ Hospital doctor.

Two students, Faiz Nandolia (third year) and Yash Parekh (second year), were expelled from the Lokmanya Tilak Medical College at the Sion Hospital, while three --Vidhi Shrivastva, Devaki Gandhi (both studying dentistry) and Ehtesham Khan - were expelled from the medical colleges at the Nair Hospital.

One of those expelled, Seeral Salim Patel, was a student of RN Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle, while two students, Zeenat Khan and Rajshri, were expelled from colleges in Kolhapur.

Stunned by the development, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), which supervises admissions in all state and civic-run hospitals in Maharashtra, has asked for verification of all students who have secured admissions under the SC/ST quota, even as police complaints have been filed against the 17 expelled students, and they could be arrested in a day or two.

The development has shocked the medical fraternity in Mumbai, which now fears that several students may have misused the SC/ST quota in a similar manner. The Grant Medical College sources said that the DMER got a tip-off that a few students who secured admissions under the SC/ST quota in the academic year 2013-14 and 2014-15 may have submitted fake caste certificates.

"The college forwarded all caste certificates to the DMER. The nine Grant Medical College students found guilty of malpractice had claimed that they belonged to a tribal village near Nandurbar in northwest Maharashtra. The Nandurbar district authorities sent a report on Tuesday, identifying nine fake certificates," the JJ Hospital dean, Dr TP Lahane, said.

"The college has expelled nine students for submitting fake caste certificates. It is extremely unfortunate these seats will now remain vacant and genuine candidates have lost out," Lahane added.

The DMER director, Pravin Shingare, said a tipoff was provided by Sadanand Gavit, a former Mantralaya staffer. "We received a complaint from Gavit that several students were using bogus certificates to secure admissions under the SC/ST quota. Most of these students claim to be from Nandurbar," Shingare said.

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